The 110-tonne propeller on board is destined for the Port of Busan in South Korea.

From there, it will be transported on to the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard, where the first of eleven new container ships are currently being built for the shipping company MSC.

The newbuilds will be the biggest container ships in the world, with a capacity of 23,000 TEU.

Courtesy of HHLA

Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH (MMG), which manufactured the propeller, loads around 100 pieces of equipment at the Port of Hamburg every year.

Since they are usually transported by container ships, and container gantry cranes are generally unable to lift such large heavy loads, the HHLA III or HHLA IV floating cranes are nearly always involved in loading operations.

In a delicate process, the jib of the floating crane raised the propeller from the transport platform, before carefully lifting it over the towering side of the 300-metre-long container vessel.